The husband storms towards his wife, angry that their son Humaid, a militia fighter, refuses to hand over his weapon to the government. “He thinks life is all about war,” the man tells her.
The mother responds with a question that goes to the heart of the country’s long-running debate over Iran-backed militias: “Then who will protect the country?”
The dramatic scene, part of a wider media campaign launched this week by the government, is an unusually blunt attempt by the Iraqi state to take the argument over the future of the country’s powerful Iran-aligned armed groups directly to the public.
With a September 30 deadline approaching for armed factions to disarm, a demand still rejected by some of the most powerful groups, Baghdad is moving from political negotiations to television and social media to build public support for the disarmament.
Shiite armed groups gained legitimacy and expanded their role during two defining periods in Iraq's modern history: the presence of US forces following the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, and the war against ISIS after the extremist group seized large parts of the country in 2014.
However, with the US military mission in Iraq now drawing to a close and the threat of ISIS significantly diminished, the government argues that the original justification for maintaining powerful armed formations outside the state’s direct control has disappeared.
The scene, broadcast by state television, carries that message and suggests that Iraqis should now trust the state to protect them.
“Those are our heroes,” the husband tells his wife as a fighter jet roars overhead, referring to Iraq’s security forces and saying they are capable of protecting the country. “Iraq is safe. Humaid, hand over your weapon,” he yells as he leaves his wife. A slogan appears on screen: “From weapons to life”.
Two days after Iraq’s top political leadership issued its strongest warning to militias, stating that failure to comply with the September 30 deadline for disarmament will result in terrorism charges, the government's counter-terrorism service posted videos on its Facebook page. One of the videos showed masked soldiers in full gear gathered in an open area with a post that reads: “We are ready”.
Meanwhile, an online poster by the Interior Ministry depicts extending hands holding up a rifle over the Iraqi flag with the line: “Restricting weapons to the hands of the state is key to peace”.
Iraqi state news agency and TV have also been republishing excerpts from previous statements by the Shiite spiritual leader in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, calling for restricting weapons in the hands of the state.
'An eye for an eye'
Iraq's disarmament push rests on separating two overlapping structures: the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), the legal state-salaried umbrella of dozens of armed groups created in 2014, and the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, the looser Iran-aligned network, which comprises a number of groups that are also part of the PMF, focused on attacking US and Israeli targets.
Things appeared to be progressing smoothly towards a disarmament deal by September 30 after Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al Zaidi took office in May and announced the deadline. From the start, his government has been under mounting pressure from regional countries and the international community, mainly the US.
Two prominent pro-Tehran armed groups, Asaib Ahl Al Haq and Kataib Imam Ali, alongside cleric Moqtada Al Sadr’s Saraya Al Salam faction, claimed they have placed their weapons under state authority. But hardline factions – mainly Kataib Hezbollah and Harakat Hezbollah Al Nujaba – have said they will not disarm until foreign troops leave.
Following the US-Saudi air strikes late last month on the PMF that killed at least 20 fighters and injured dozens, these factions hardened their stance. And after the visit by the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force, Brig Gen Esmail Qaani, to Baghdad this month, they have grown more defiant, adding more conditions for their disarmament, according to security sources.
Among these demands are the disarmament of peshmerga, the official local forces in the Kurdistan region, and that Turkish forces stationed in the north to fight the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Iranian Kurdish opposition groups in Kurdistan must leave. They also argue that Iraq remains politically, economically and militarily vulnerable, and Washington continues to wield influence, and that, therefore, the state has yet to establish full control over the country.
Last week, the head of Badr Organisation's political office, Mohammed Naji, warned that any attempt to forcibly disarm armed groups would result in civil war and deepen internal divisions in Iraq.
Days later, the spokesman for Kataib Hezbollah, Abu Mujahid Al Assaf, said: “Our patience with the frivolous young Prime Minister Ali Al Zaidi has lasted for more than 100 days.” He added that patience “has begun to run out over [his] provocative and irresponsible actions”, referring to the arrest of a PMF commander linked to the Al Nujaba faction on Monday. He warned that “we could begin to act according to the principle: an eye for an eye”.
The arrest of ِAbbas Al Yaqoubi, who is the intelligence director for Baghdad Belt Operations, was Mr Al Zaidi's first confrontation with the militias. After his arrest at his home, security forces handed him over to the PMF security apparatus. On Wednesday, a Baghdad court “dropped all charges against him”, according to PMF. Neither the court nor PMF gave details on the charges.
Mr Al Yaqoubi was given a hero's welcome by his comrades, who handed him a rifle. In his remarks to a media outlet linked to Al Nujaba, he accused Mr Trump's Special Envoy to Syria and Iran, Tom Barrack, of creating crises and dragging Iraq into internal fighting. He said he will sue the National Intelligence Service “over the malicious accusations”, without giving more details.
'Humaid won't hand over his weapon'
In an attempt to defuse tension, senior Shiite political leaders have urged self-restraint and called for de-escalation. On Tuesday, former prime minister Nouri Al Maliki told the US charge d'affaires in Iraq, Joshua Harris, that the Co-ordination Framework – the largest Shiite parliamentary bloc – had formed a committee to work with the government to implement the disarmament mechanism, according to a statement.
Badr is considered the pivotal swing actor because it is a core PMF pillar, a Co-ordination Framework heavyweight deeply embedded in state institutions. Most analysts expect an incremental outcome from the government's campaign: co-operative factions absorbed, holdouts squeezed, and some symbolic handovers, with the real result depending on Badr's choice and the US-Iran trajectory.
The government’s decision to take that argument to television and social media suggests it believes the battle cannot be won through negotiations with political and armed leaders alone, and it needs the public on its side. But its campaign is not going unanswered.
The dramatic scene quickly drew angry and mocking responses from the armed groups and their supporters, with some accusing the authorities of serving US interests and following an agenda favourable to Israel.
In Maysan province, south of Baghdad, masked militia supporters were filmed as they sprayed this sentence on the walls of the state TV building: “Humaid is a brave man. He won’t hand over his weapon”. They also remade the dramatic scene aired on state TV, with the father asking his son not to heed the disarmament call due to continuing threats to the country, mainly from the US.
Another response came from the South Islamic Cultural Centre, an NGO which is associated with armed groups and political parties aligned with Iran. In a video filmed on a football pitch, players hold up a sign that reads: “We won't hand over our weapons. If you want to play football, come” – an expression that usually translates in Iraq to simply: “Forget about it”.
